International rivalry in Samoa 1845-1884

Abstract

The thesis deals with the origin and growth of the interests of Great Britain, Germany, and the United States in Samoa. The first British contact, through the missionaries, (1836) aimed at Christianizing, civilizing, and Angicizing the natives; and thus they prepared the way for political and commercial developments. Commerce was, however largely opportunist, until the utilization of coconut oil in European markets brought merchants to the Pacific for copra. The Hamburg merchants, Godeffroy and Son chose Samoa as the centre for their extensive copra trade. (1854). Plantations tied German interests materially to Samoa, and the fear lest these should suffer, made Germans undesirous of seeing Samoa annexed by another Power. The development of trans-Pacific communications that followed the gold discoveries in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, gave the islands a strategic importance. New Zealand statesmen envisaged advantages in annexation of Samoa and other Polynesian islands for defense, for commercial expansion, and for the suppression of the labour trade. American speculators and adventurers agitated for United States intervention, and the response they received indicated a half-hearted desire on the part of the government for the extension of American interests in the Pacific. Native wars within the islands (1869-1881) threatened to ruin trade and planting. The mutual recognition of interests, embodied in the treaties of the three Powers with the native faction in power at the time in Samoa, (1878-9) led to the joint action of the British, German and American representatives in restoring order. (1888) Co-operation was interrupted in 1884 by the aggressive action of Germans the reflection of a change of policy in Germany. The refusal of New Zealand and the United States to recognize the superiority of German rights led to the impasse of 1885. After this the Somoa question became a part of international diplomacy, the subject of negotiations, upon which the affairs within the islands had comparatively little influence. This last phase is outside the scope of this thesis which deals only with the roots of the problem, before it becomes international.